Lot n° 189
Estimation :
3000 - 4000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 7 250EUR
PIANO FORTE in wood and mahogany veneer.... - Lot 189 - Osenat
PIANO FORTE in wood and mahogany veneer. It rests on four columns with gilt bronze rings joined by a central lyre with a carved "N" motif. Ornamentation motifs with a carved bronze "N" on the sides. Six-octave keyboard, pegbox on the right, the oblique strings and their hooks are distributed along the soundboard. Signed "Louis GAIDON, spinet, harpsichord and piano-forte, 87 rue Saint-Denis in Paris". It bears a printed label, framed on the soundboard: "Piano forte Louis Gaidon designed and built for the Imperial Court from 1811 to 1813. After the fall of Napoleon I, Professor Bernard Jullien became the owner of this instrument. This piano forte, which was played by illustrious masters, remained in its original state thanks to the diligent care that the Jullien family took for one hundred and thirty years in their hotel in the Marais. In 1953, Jean Farger, an expert in pianos, harpsichords and harps, acquired it from the heiress of Adolphe Jullien, music and theatre critic (successor to Hector Berlioz and Ernest Reyer) in the "Journal des Débats". H : 90 - W :182.5 - D : 77 cm B.T.E. Empire period. Provenance : Private collection (Fontainebleau) History of successive owners : Louis GAIDON, (Paris 1751-1819) Was the apprentice of a skilful craftsman Jean-Claude Bayen and then a worker for Sébastien Erard. At the end of the century he opened a modest workshop for the repair of spruce and harpsichords. A few years later he enlarged his premises and began making pianoforte, instruments that competed with the harpsichord. The workshops were located at the end of a courtyard at 87 rue Saint-Denis in Paris. Louis Gaidon enjoyed the best reputation when he was commissioned to make the instrument in question for the imperial court. It took Louis Gaidon almost two years to produce this fortepiano No. 17, which came out of his workshop, bearing the monogram of Emperor Napoleon I on the lyre. It was delivered to the court at the end of 1813. He died in the summer of 1819. Widowed and childless, his two nephews shared his possessions. In 1821, the Gaidon brothers each founded a piano factory on their own. They won medals at the 1834, 1844 and 1867 exhibitions. Bernard JULLIEN (1752-1826) Bernard Julien, Master of Arts at the University of Paris, became a professor at the College of Navarre. After the Revolution, he was appointed professor at the Prytanée militaire de Saint-Cyr. He wrote to a friend: "I will tell you quietly that when Bonaparte was in Paris, I used to translate the newspapers of England for him...". Sainte-Beuve tells us that he was well educated in English literature and was a regular visitor to the salon of Madame de Beaumont (mistress of Chateaubriand). Bernard Jullien had taken part in the coup d'état of 18 brumaire an VIII (November 1799) and had the privilege of attending the Emperor's coronation ceremony at Notre-Dame (December 2, 1804). Mr. and Mrs. Jullien were invited on many occasions to receptions at the imperial court. Marcel-Bernard JULLIEN (1798-1881) Son of Bernard, Doctor of Letters and Bachelor of Science, professor at the college of Sainte-Barbe, then of rhetoric at the college of Bourbon-Vendée, four years later at Saint-Maixent and finally principal of the college of Dieppe. In 1836 he left this post for Paris where he bought an old mansion in the Marais, the Hôtel Vaton (also called Hôtel Havis) at 10 rue du Puits (now rue Aubriot). A free teacher, he gave classes at the Athénée Royal and in 1843 became editor-in-chief of the Revue de l'Instruction Publique for 25 years. He was a friend of Quicherat and Littré, to whose dictionary he contributed greatly. In 1832, Chopin is said to have been heard on this pianoforte. The wife of Marcel-Bernard Jullien, an excellent pianist and harpist, taught music to her son from the age of five on this pianoforte, which appears in the inventory made in 1848. Jean-Lucien Adolphe JULLIEN, music critic (1845-1932) Adolphe Jullien was born in this hotel in the Marais. He gave his first article of music criticism to the Ménestrel on December 19, 1869 on Schumann's Paradise and Peri. From that time on he actively collaborated in numerous reviews: Revue et Gazette Musicale, Le Ménestrel, La Chronique Musicale, La Revue Contemporaine, Le Courrier Littéraire, Le Moniteur du Bibliophile, La Revue de France, La Revue Britannique, Le Figaro... He took the defence of musicians who were then disputed like Schumann, Berlioz or Wagner. He wrote the musical soap opera Le Français from 1872 onwards. He published in-depth studies: The court and opera under Louis XVI (1878), comedy and gallantry in the 18th century, and the history of costume in the theatre. But it was in the field of music that his writings made their mark: Goethe et la musique (1880), Richard Wagner sa vie ses œuvres (1886), Hector Berlioz sa vie ses œuvres (1888), Musiciens d'aujourd'hui (1892), Ernest Reyer biographie critique (1909), Music
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